Junk-Mail Art Re-Creates the ‘Dialup Aesthetic’

E-mails about Chinese brides, penis extensions and medical marvels are fleeing from inboxes quicker than you can say “spam filter.” However, for one artist, junk mail is an essential source of inspiration — and he’s trying to preserve it for future generations.

[partner id=”wireduk”]James Howard is currently exhibiting Authorized at the Aubin Gallery in London’s East End. The show features huge posters and screenings of computer-created collages of the screen grabs, JPEGs and animated GIFs that Howard has been stashing on “hard drives and hard drives and hard drives,” inspired by his years spent as a teen hacker in the late ’90s, in an attempt to “harvest [it] while it’s still there.”

“One of my fears is that there will be more and more digital acts passed through the government which will stop digital rights,” Howard confesses to Wired.co.uk. “All the fun stuff is going on lockdown it seems, so I’ve been kind of holding onto as much as possible, junk mail folders and turning it into these college artworks.”

By “fun stuff,” Howard is referring to junk mail and scams, which he delves into, antivirus-protected, for artistic research. “They call it scam-baiting,” he explains, “in order to research something you have to become a part of it.”

While previously that has meant inventing a “black money” chemical cleaning laboratory as a spinoff of the black money scam of 2000 (“one of the most in-depth particular research activities on that scam”), Howard is currently specializing in bridal scams.

“I’m really interested in the profiles people set up on dating websites and Facebook in order to lure in single guys,” he says. “I find it good material communicating with these people. You have to play the part of the gullible English gentleman who’s falling in love with the beautiful Chinese lady who’s actually some guy on the other side of the internet.”

The trick to making sure you don’t go too far? “You have to come up with a story that’s even better than theirs,” he says.

That’s not to say Howard’s computer hasn’t suffered from his treacherous modes of research. “I’m always getting my various virus software flashing up with all sorts of warnings, they’re usually pretty harmless. I have had some pretty incredible viruses in the past; when you ignore the warnings and then you find your computer’s being infected … viruses aren’t really my favorite.”

As a result, Howard’s work manages to blend imagery from spam and junk mail to create a familiar picture of the darker side of the internet, even for those who haven’t witnessed it themselves.

“These madly grinning people you get on spam e-mails, happy families with glistening teeth, beautiful sunsets and sunrises which always appear, I like to whack it all together into something which gives a kind of portrait of our digital existence — all that’s beautiful about it and all that’s dangerous, it’s kind of an organic thing which we don’t have much control over.”

The familiar nature of these collages maybe caused by something more subconscious, however. Howard explains, “I think of the spam e-mail we receive as a reflection on core human conditions, such as desires, fears and weaknesses that can be exploited. Looking into a junk e-mail folder can give you an interesting viewpoint on society today, and its underlying condition.”

‘I love the dialup aesthetic, because that’s where I come from.’

Howard’s artwork has an unmistakably retro feel, reflecting the era of early home internet where online scams and stripped-down imagery were far more prevalent.

“When you think of a spam e-mail or a dodgy internet site you imagine it to have that late ’90s porno aesthetic,” he says. “I love the dialup aesthetic, because that’s where I come from. It’s what I grew up using and it’s what a lot of the world’s population are still using.”